North civic body procures 15 skid loaders to clean narrow lanes of Old Delhi

These loaders are compact in size, even smaller than regular tippers and can enter the bylanes easily. Moreover, each machine can do multiple tasks such as lifting garbage or debris from roadsides and cleaning drains

New Delhi: The North Delhi Municipal Corporation has procured 15 steer skid loaders on Friday for the cleaning of narrow lanes in old Delhi, unauthorised colonies and other areas.

The employees of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi clearing the garbage (Sushil Kumar/HT PHOTO)

“These loaders are compact in size, even smaller than regular tippers and can enter the bylanes easily. Moreover, each machine can do multiple tasks such as lifting garbage or debris from roadsides and cleaning drains,”said Tilak Raj Kataria, standing committee chairman, North Corporation.

“They will take half the time consumed in lifting of garbage through rickshaws and cover more area in the same time. The collected waste will be taken to dumping sites through tipper and trucks,” he said. Based on their performance, more machines will be ordered in the future.

In Delhi, the three municipal Corporations are responsible for the upkeep of 28,000 km road network. Of this, the North Corporation controls nearly 15,000 km of streets and bylanes.

For sweeping of these roads, North Corporation targets to engage one Jatayu machine in each of the 104 wards, within next one month. “The machines will also help in controlling road dust as well and purchased from the funds allocated under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan,” said a North Corporation official.

“Since we have hired private concessionaire for lifting of garbage from inner lanes, there is no need for engaging municipal vehicles. However, for the cleaning of market complexes for at leat two to three times in a day, we have ordered 40 litter picking machines,” said Kamaljeet Sehrawat, mayor SDMC.

The North MCD has also procured four vacuum-based mechanical sweeping machines for wider roads (up to 100 ft wide) and belonging to public works department.

“The reason for selecting wider roads and highways for mechanical sweeping is that there won’t be any illegal parking on them during night. These huge vacuum cleaning machines would work for at least eight hours in a day and sweep at a speed of 5 kmph in the beginning,” said senior North DMC official.